A SUMMER RAMBLE AMONG THE HEBRIDES. 47 



ing near the shores of Madeira by the brother-in-law of Co- 

 lumbus, and which, among other similar pieces of circumstan- 

 tial evidence, led the great navigator to infer the existence of 

 a western continent. Curiosities of this kind seem still more 

 common in the northern than in the western islands of Scot- 

 land. " Large exotic nuts or seeds," says Dr Patrick Neill, 

 in his interesting " Tour," quoted in a former chapter, " which 

 in Orkney are known by the name of Molucca beans, are 

 occasionally found among the rejectamenta of the sea, especi- 

 ally after westerly winds. There are two kinds commonly 

 found : the larger (of which the fishermen very generally make 

 snuff-boxes) seem to be seeds from the great pod of the 

 Mimosa scandens of the West Indies ; the smaller seeds, from 

 the pod of the Dolichos urens, also a native of the same region. 

 It is probable that the currents of the ocean, and particu- 

 larly that great current which issues from the Gulf of Flo- 

 rida, and is hence denominated the Gulf Stream, aid very 

 much in transporting across the mighty Atlantic these Ame- 

 rican products. They are generally quite fresh and entire, 

 and afford an additional proof how impervious to moisture, 

 and how imperishable, nuts and seeds generally are." 



The evening was fast falling ere the minister closed his dis- 

 course; and we had but just light enough left, on reaching the 

 Betsey, to show us that there lay a dead sheep on the deck. 

 It had been sent aboard to be killed by the minister's fac- 

 totum, John Stewart ; but John was at the evening preaching 

 at the time, and the poor sheep, in its attempts to set itself 

 free, had got itself involved among the cords, and strangled 

 itself " Alas, alas ! " exclaimed the minister, " thus ends our 

 hope of fresh mutton for the present, and my hapless specu- 

 lation as a sheep-farmer for ever more." I learned from him 

 afterwards, over our tea, that shortly previous to the Convo- 

 cation he had got his glebe, one of the largest in Scotland, 

 well stocked with sheep and cattle, which he had to sell, 



